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Friday, 4 December 2015

The non-blog. Sorry.

Hi, my name is kreachr, and I have been absent from this blog for nearly two months... ugh, can you believe it? This year has flown by!

I started a post some time last month, but never finished it. Slacker. Life has been pretty full-on, but not particularly busy at the same time. Know what I mean? I finished study for the year, then waited not-so-patiently for my results. My third B+ (sad face) and another A+, helped along by a final assignment awarded 96%. Not bad ;) What I find amusing is that the A+ was for my most dreaded paper - Project Management. Well, whaddaya know? Not so scary after all! Two more papers to go...

The boys had their 11th and 13th birthdays last month. Dear god, I am the mother of a teenager. Please send help. They finish school in just over a week, 'graduating' primary school and intermediate, before embarking on a new chapter of their lives, at intermediate and high school. Fun times.

We had our family holiday in Queenstown, where Deane and I completed a half marathon together. I'll admit it was the slowest half marathon I've ever run (or rather, mostly walked) but I did it beside my husband, who was completing his first ever running (walking) event. We scraped in just under his target time of three hours (official time 2:59:29) and I couldn't be prouder of him. We even crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. Awwww... I'd post a pic, especially since I look fresh as a daisy, but Deane looks... not so fresh. He probably wouldn't appreciate it. Don't worry sweetie, I got your back :) Here's my favourite holiday snap instead:

About to go on the Queenstown luge! Then visit the cafe after one ride. Deane and X had fun - they got all the extra rides that T and I didn't use. At least T gave it a go, I suppose...

My vegetable garden is growing incredibly well. Not everything has worked out perfectly, and I must have the world's slowest growing zucchini plant with the world's tiniest zucchinis. Seriously, everyone keeps going on about how zucchinis grow ginormous when you turn your back for a minute and you can't get rid of them fast enough. I have picked a grand total of four zucchinis from my plant, and none of them have been over ten centimetres long. I've hand pollinated, I've left them to grow bigger (they don't)... I am actually disappointed I don't have mountains of them. Oh well, maybe next year. I'll try a different variety, make sure I add plenty more compost and sheep manure to the soil before planting, and fertilise regularly.

We have buckets of lettuce (yes yes, I planted too much), and are enjoying the small amounts of beans, carrots and strawberries we've had so far. My mizuna bolted so I pulled it out, the red leaf mustard is too bitter for my liking (I'll dig it in once its finished growing), and the earwigs annihilated my kai laan, spinach and bok choy to the point where I didn't want to even attempt to salvage it. My silverbeet is severely stunted, but the spaghetti squash is going great guns. I've got truss tomatoes growing slowly but surely, and the corn is getting taller by the day. My apples actually look like apples, and I can't wait for them to be ready! The boys named the Pacific Rose apple tree Thomas, and Deane named the Pink Lady tree Colette. They're keeping Bob, Charles, Edward and Joseph Lavender company ;) I guess it's my fault for starting the trend, when I named the worms Frank and Ethel. They're also doing well, in case you were wondering. I'm mostly looking forward to the potatoes, kumara, peas, broccoli and cauliflower. Ooh, and the eggplant and cucumber. Patience, patience... I love love love the phacelia and borage, and the contrasting colour of the nasturtiums. I can't wait for the dwarf sunflowers, cornflowers and forget-me-nots to grow too. So exciting! Gardening is fun! Except for the earwigs and leaf miners, blergh.

And I thought I couldn't grow anything...

The rhubarb is at war with the cabbages for space, and the petunias are trying to hold their ground in the same part of the garden. It's a riot of colour. I'm loving it.

Cabbages, rhubarb, camellias and petunias. To the left is the zucchini with giant yellow flowers, to the right is the black petunia.

I have finished my Christmas shopping, and just have a few bits and pieces to finish up. I'm spending the next week in the school library, helping out as much as I can before T leaves the school. Hmm, I wonder if the intermediate or high school libraries need helpers...?

I applied for a job in a high school library, but didn't get it. The person who did left an opening at another high school library, so I applied for that job. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know :) Otherwise next year will be filled with finishing my Degree (and graduating for my Diploma which is officially complete), training for the Hawkes Bay marathon in May, and volunteering in libraries and other places while looking for jobs with suitable hours and throwing my CV at them in the hope that somebody will hire me.

Hopefully it won't be quite so long between updates next time! I think it's about time I got out onto the trails again, so I can snap some pretty pictures of the views and make y'all jealous ;)

If I don't get back here before Christmas, I hope you have a good one filled with friends and family, lots of laughs, love, good food and plenty of fun. What are you hoping Santa brings you? All I want for Christmas is the aforementioned friends/family/laughs/love/food/fun. Perhaps some of these or these. And maybe, just maybe, some new running shoes ;)